A new report from Coldwell Banker shows that sales and listings of homes priced at $10 million or more have more than doubled in some communities in the past year. While the market for these mega-mansions remains tiny nationally, they are becoming downright common in a select few towns favored by the super-rich.
The top zip code for homes sold for $10 million or more is Beverly Hills, with 19 mega-homes sold between November 2011 and October of 2012. Tied for second place was Aspen, Colo., and Santa Barbara, both with 13 homes sold for $10 million or more………………………………………..Full Article: Source

What a difference a year makes. After slogging through years of crippling property value declines and foreclosures, the housing market finally gained traction in 2012 as strengthening home prices, better sales, and more construction propelled the sector to be one of the only bright spots in the economy.
But there’s still a long way to go when it comes to the return of a “normal” housing market, says Trulia’s Chief Economist Jed Kolko. Here’s what he said we can expect from the housing market in 2013………………………………………..Full Article: Source

American property values plummeted 34 per cent after the 2006 market vertex according to the S & P Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Values hit rock bottom in late 2009 and remained relatively flat until this year’s supply and demand imbalance resulted in double-digit price growth in most major markets.
New York: The number of condominium sales surged 22.1 per cent over the previous quarter to 1,132 sales according to a recent report released by Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Residents say Sammamish, Wash., is one friendly place. Wives in the suburban Seattle community have been known to swap recipes while their husbands borrow tools. Children play in the cul-de-sacs and walk to school by themselves if they live close enough.
“I have never lived in a community that’s more welcoming,” says Katy Chung, a six-year resident and a stay-at-home mother. “When we first moved here, neighbors came out of their homes to introduce themselves and give me delivery menus!” That friendliness is not unusual in Sammamish, adds Chung, who now joins her neighbors in welcoming newcomers to the neighborhood………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The number of building applications issued in November rose to a four-year high, a sign the U.S. housing-market recovery will extend into 2013. Permits, a proxy for future construction, climbed 3.6 percent to an 899,000 annual rate, the most since July 2008 and exceeding the 875,000 median forecast of 58 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, Commerce Department figures showed in Washington.
While housing starts fell 3 percent to an 861,000 pace, the average rate from September through November was the strongest since the three months ended August 2008………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The commercial real estate market, and the U.S. CMBS market in particular, are likely to see steady improvement in the New Year, says Huxley Somerville, head of US CMBS at Fitch Ratings in New York. “A slow increase in volume is preferable; we would not like to see a 50% increase over 2012,” he says. “A 15% to 20% increase would be much better. Otherwise, competition would lead to the erosion of underwriting standards.”
“We expect 2012 CMBS issuance to finish at roughly $45 billion, with a slight increase to $50 billion as a possibility in 2013,” says Zanda Lynn, managing director at Fitch Ratings………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Property experts say even London house prices will tread water over coming year. Britain’s already-depressed housing market will stay firmly in the doldrums in 2013.
That is the unanimous view of estate agents and property consultants. Most say prices will dip up to 4% in northern England, Scotland and Wales, while values will be roughly static in southern England and London. Even prime central London – where prices have risen an average 30% since 2007 thanks to an influx of affluent buyers from overseas – will tread water in the coming year………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The UK rental property market is set for a ‘more stable’ year in 2013, one agency predicts. ‘The high demand and lack of stock which, over the past 18 months, has forced rapid rent rises in the areas within which we operate, ranging from between 10% and 30%, were simply not sustainable,’ comments Caroline Kavanagh, Managing Director of Townends.
‘Rents now appear to have peaked for the time being as a steadier number of instructions make tenants feel more inclined to consider the options out there, although this has left some landlords’ rental expectations for continual rises in the New Year, a little out of kilter………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Investment in commercial real estate in Paris is likely to surpass earlier full-year expectations of EUR 8-10 bn, with the current forecast put at EUR 10-11 bn worth of deals, according to Stephan von Barczy, managing director of French capital markets at Jones Lang LaSalle.
‘Investment transactions amounted to around EUR 9 bn already at end-November, suggesting that there is potential for a volume similar to 2011, when a total of EUR 12 bn of assets traded in the market,’ he told PropertyEU………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Investors seeking bargain Spanish real estate have never been as spoilt for choice as they are at the moment, with property prices falling yet again. The latest figures from Instituto Nacional de Estadistica revealed that prices plummeted by a massive 15 per cent in the penultimate quarter of 2012.
This is up on the second quarter, where a fall of 14.4 per cent was noted. According to the Housing Price Index, this downward spiral is the result of a tight squeeze on credit, stalled demand and oversupply. Spain is also currently battling to come out of its second recession in three years, with unemployment increasing to over 25 per cent………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The property market in the UAE is set to remain a “tale of two very different cities” next year according to a report from the property advisory firm Jones Lang LaSalle. In its review of the year for the Emirates, the company said there were “grounds for cautious optimism about the prospects for the Dubai real-estate market in 2013″ while “demand remains suppressed in the short term” in Abu Dhabi.
Jones Lang LaSalle reports that while property has lagged the overall economy in Dubai this year, it predicts rents and prices will rise in most of the city’s sectors………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The year 2012 hasn’t been great for the real estate sector, and things won’t be much next year either, says a report by PropEquity. While the residential sector witnessed the maximum deals this year, private equity investment in the sector dried up, an indication of the overall negative sentiment plaguing the economy.
According to the report, the negative sentiment of 2012 may get carried forward into the first quarter of the next financial year, though the Real Estate Regulation Bill and the Land Acquisition Bill may help the sector revive thereafter………………………………………..Full Article: Source

After waiting for a year, accountant Qi Youdi has bought a new home in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, among the millions of buyers bringing the country’s property market back to life.
For the past two years, China has sought to control residential property prices with measures including restrictions on second and third home purchases, higher minimum downpayments, and annual taxes in some cities on multiple and non-locally-owned homes………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has sounded another warning about the risk of runaway home prices to the economy, which also faces a poor short-term outlook because of weak foreign demand.
In its latest quarterly report on the health of the city’s economy and the banking sector, the authority said the city could be thrown back into recession if the European sovereign debt crisis escalated and if the United States failed to moderate tax increase and government spending cuts due to take effect next month………………………………………..Full Article: Source

While Singapore’s trade dependent economy has had a tough 2012, even teetering on the brink of a recession earlier this year, the city state’s residential property market has remained robust, with prices among the highest in the world.
Private home prices in this Southeast Asian financial hub have risen a whopping 56 percent since the global financial crisis, and most analysts expect this upward trajectory to continue into the new year, even as the market faces a drop in sales volumes amid a somber growth outlook………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Jakarta is likely to have the biggest jump in office rents globally through 2014 as technology and financial-service firms expand into emerging markets, Cushman & Wakefield said. Office rents probably will climb 79 percent in the Indonesian capital from the end of last year through the fourth quarter of 2014, according to the brokerage’s Global Office Forecast.
Sao Paulo is likely to have the second-biggest increase, at 59 percent, followed by San Francisco with a 33 percent gain, according to the report. London rents are expected to rise 21 percent, ranking it No. 10 on Cushman’s list………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Property prices in Taiwan have risen by nearly 60% in major cities over the past three years. The rise has been fuelled in part by speculators who are keen to cash in on low interest rates in the country.
However, as Cindy Sui reports from Taipei, purchasing property is becoming increasingly tough for many due to speculative buying………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Houses going for free, multimillion-dollar hovels, mansion fire sales by the dozen, and rates heading to zero. Bargain hunting and runaway extravagance set the buying extremes for this year’s property market.
A two-tier real estate sector emerged as investors embraced low rates and returned to bricks and mortar but cautious owner-occupiers continued to hold off selling, and first-home buyers stayed on the sidelines. Record low interest rates and consumer jitters created a house divided………………………………………..Full Article: Source

RBA governor Glenn Stevens has played down concerns over house prices crashing, but has indicated the RBA would act if prices started rising by 10% to 20% per year alongside rising household debt levels.
In a recent Property Observer article, Stevens urges Australians to be content with more modest increases in house prices, describing double-digit house price growth as both “puzzling and “troubling”………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A derelict medical center for veterans in Salem, Va., that was transformed into an energy efficient place to live and work — thanks to a mélange of private and public funds — proves that investors can make money and support social change at the same time.
That was the message of a panel discussion at the recent Wharton Social Impact Conference focused on innovative approaches to financing socially responsible projects in the real estate sector. How much money is potentially available for building while also serving social and environmental benefits is anybody’s guess………………………………………..Full Article: Source